Chapter two: Tree House

Collars have never been my friend. I tugged at the white blouse neckline of the school's uniform and sighed a bit at my reflection in the mirror. I had, of course been warned after seeing all the other girls in this outfit, but still I hadn't really taken it to mind.

Yellow really didn't look very good with red.

"You don't know how lucky you are Haruhi," I said smiling a bit as I turned to the short hair girl next to me. "The boys' uniform looks a lot more doable."

Blinking the young girl laughed a bit at my expression as I once again tugged at the sleeves of the dress. "I doubt they're that bad, Masami. Either way you're not alone in your discomfiture. A lot of the girls don't like them much either."

"Either way I will be glad to only wear it at school," I muttered stepping behind the curtain again to get out of the dress. I heard Haruhi make a sound of agreement and then the sound of her sitting down on the couch in the room.

"Yes, well, a lot of times we don't wear the uniforms. Tamaki likes to be in the style of clothes that match the theme of the day." By the tone of her voice it was like I could almost hear her eyes rolling as she spoke. "So you want have to worry much, if you're joining."

"Yeah, you know I don't know what that's about" I grumbled as I pulled my red hair from the collar of the designer shirt I was wearing again and looked in the mirror with a sigh. "They never really mentioned much about the club itself to me, they talked a lot of the people, mostly you really." I shrugged even though she couldn't see me "I definitely didn't expect a host club."

I certainly hadn't. Haruhi had explained almost everything to me, even how she'd ended up pretending to be a guy. I found it a bit odd but either way even if people did know she was a girl, I guess nothing had really changed for her. I guess I'd figure it out as I went.

"I'm sure we'll get it all sorted out. Don't worry too much about it." Perhaps that was why I liked her. Her calm demeanor made it easier to think through situations that you didn't want to.

Silently I looked in the mirror again, trying to make my hair presentable and paused. Sometimes I wondered where this hair had come from; sure the boys were redheads, well kind of. But blood red? Almost auburn? I shook my head a bit, I wasn't sure about the green eyes either but at least the skin color was close... to a lot of people. I snorted a bit shrugging it off and tossing my hair over my shoulders and feeling it land on my back and tickle my skin, lastly I grabbed the light coat and draped it over my arm.

Walking out of the dressing area, the uniform in a bag, I smiled slightly at Haruhi as she stood up. "Well then, I guess I should figure out what they meant." And with a slight amount of dread I followed her out of the room, through the door and back into mayhem.

. . .

"Oh come on Masami, you didn't really think we have you entertaining guys, did you?" Kaoru said standing there, grinning with his brother next to him. Mirror reflections, doppelgangers, total schemers. I should have known.

Looking around the room and I saw Kyoya on a lap top, appearing to not be listening, and Tamaki standing next to the twins with the freaky look still on his face. "Okay, so I can just go home after school then?"

"Oh come on sis, do you really want to be in that mansion all alone every day?" I grimaced at Hikaru, and thought about just saying yes to make them do a double take. But even though they weren't that close to me, they knew I didn't like being alone for to long. It made me feel isolated, unconnected from the world. Even if I never spoke I liked being in a room with people in it.

So I settled for a shrug and looked to the side glancing at Haruhi who was leaning on a pillar, she gave me a smile. When it came down to it, I either had the choice of being alone for who knows how long each day after school or submitting; part of me didn't want to just to show them I could do what I wanted, still… I sighed and faced the boys "Well... then what did you have in mind?"

Like they'd won the lottery all three boys lit up like a fire, burning with some kind of fuel I had just fed them. It wasn't an evil look though Tamaki looked like a kid in a candy store and the twins, for once, didn't give me a regretful feeling when I caved in and did what they asked.

I remember the time I'd agreed to let them guide me blindfolded through the back yard to their 'secret hideout'. They'd looked happy like this, not evil like they did some times like when they cut my hair once. Then again, that didn't work out for me either, that adventure had given me a badly twisted ankle and their hideout turned out to be a wobbly tree house they'd built themselves. I hadn't gotten in it.

Though sometimes I wondered what would have happened if I had gone up there. It could have been fun, a new thing to do, but like most times I'd stuck to being safe. With my line of thought broken I heard my answer to my earlier question.

"It's nothing awful, you're just going to dress up in the same outfits as us and serve kind of as a model." I raised an eyebrow at Hikaru. For some reason I doubted that would be all, but in all realism I didn't have any reason to think that, I guess I was just getting paranoid.

When Kyoya seemed to find it convenient he spoke up, scaring me a bit as he looked up from his laptop and directly at me. For some reason I found it a bit unnerving, still I wasn't going to just fold like a desk of cards, so I eyed him right back. He made a small noise of acknowledgement before looking back at the screen and talking.

"Most of your guests are female, if you wear something they might want to buy one for themselves. We could always use extra funds for the club."

Truthfully the first thing that came to mind was 'nice sales pitch' but I guessed he did have a point. After all I could imagine how much all of this must cost every time, just thinking about it made my head hurt.

I sighed again, shifting a bit under every one's waiting thoughts; the tree house popped back into my head at that moment and I remember how I had been teased about being a coward. I'd always played it safe after all. "Fine, but I better not be obligated to stay if I don't want to."

Before they could agree to that Tamaki went nuts, squealing he again nearly tackled me to the ground. Nearly being the operative word, because I caught myself. As he babble spastically about the joy of having a new member in his club Hikaru answered me.

"Just don't break a vase sis and you'll be fine."

"Hey!" I giggled a bit at Haruhi remark; I had to say I felt a little bad for the girl, but then again from what she had told me, she'd enjoyed a lot of it.

From the corner of my eye I saw Kyoya push up his glasses and started typing on the laptop. Part of me worried about that, and I wondered what I had just gotten myself into. Shaking my head I pushed Tamaki off of me and turned to the twins with a smile.

"I'll try not to."

With that I climbed the tree house and descended into a new chapter of my life.